Born in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, Kathleen Sleckman currently works at a golf course in Illinois where she moves about selling thirsty golfers snacks and beer. She previously worked as a bartender, computer graphics artist and a plumber in the Seabees with the United States Navy. She attended St. Paul's Catholic Grade School, Manitowoc Lincoln High School and the U.W. Extension Program in Manitowoc.

Sleckman has lived in Port Hueneme, California, Pacific Beach, Washington, Agana, Guam (for military service) and Oxnard, California. She describes herself as intellectually astute, sarcastically witty and a tad bit shallow. Her hero is Max Factor as, without his invention of make-up, she would be a veritable shut-in. She believes her excellent puzzle-solving skills, athleticism, knowledge of outdoor survivor skills and ability to motivate others will help her go far on SURVIVOR.

Sleckman resides in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, with her husband, Rick, their six-year-old child, Maddison, and their dog, Wilson Von Barkypants Goldendoodle. Her birth date is August 14, 1962.

I find it interesting that Jeff said she was "almost put" on Vanuatu. That was back in 2004! I wonder if they had her audition tape and contact info tucked away until now. It'll be interesting to hear what she has to say about that.

Who on Earth names their dog that? All I can think of is the "Mister Barky von Schnautzer" or however it's spelled commercial for Petco or PetSmart. I know I spelled that wrong. And I know it's a pet store. Can't remember which.

Kathy “started going into a downward spiral” and was happy to leave Survivor. But what series of events led her to that point? Why does she feel she was unlucky? What does she say to those who criticize her for taking a spot in the game that another Fan could have had? And how is she doing now? Kathy answers all of these questions and more in this exclusive RealityNewsOnline interview.

Kathy may have quit the game, but she is at least in pretty good spirits about it now. What happened to her? Why didn’t she know what to expect out there? And what answer does she give because she thinks she’s supposed to, even while laughing about it? Read all she has to say, right here.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Kathy, and thanks for taking the time to talk to RealityNewsOnline! Starting at the beginning, what was your strategy coming into the game?

Kathy: Basically, misfits are good. I was going to just find out the people that were kind of misfits. There’s numbers in that too. I got there and found out, I thought I was the only one – I’m like, okay, that’s not good.

RNO: How did that strategy change as the game went on?

Kathy: Pretty much anything I thought was going to happen, the second we got into the boat for that opening shot kind of changed. It’s odd how you can see little cliques forming even before you can speak to each other. I saw that coming and said uh oh. I said, like wow, am I like the oldest person here? Where are my Yau-Mans? Where are my Rudys?

RNO: So what did you think when you saw the Yau-Man and the other Favorites?

Kathy: Oh my god, I love love love the Yau-Man. What they didn’t show on TV was how shocked I was when he was gone. When we waded across that channel [in the opening “challenge” to get to the boats], I went over to him because I wanted to shake his hand. That’s how he knew my name to point out the idol to me at the beginning. It was a pleasure to meet him.

RNO: You kept saying you couldn’t feel your family – can you explain what you meant?

Kathy: You know, they let me wear – I have a ring that I got at Great America that has my daughter’s name. I thought maybe that wasn’t a good idea because every time I thought of them, I would just break down. I knew I was in trouble even before it started, so I was always thinking of my family. I told my daughter to look at the moon and I’ll be looking at the same moon [and we’ll say goodnight to each other]. That worked for a while and then I started going into a really dark place. As much as you think you can prepare for this game, mother nature kicked my ass – and the seven other people I was with on my tribe.

RNO: Did you consider that even after leaving the island, you’d still be sequestered away from your family?

Kathy: Yeah. I knew that, but as I told Jeff, it just gives me hope that I’ll be one step closer. I was watching the show last night and said that girl, whoever she was, she looked really happy to get on that boat. It was amazing the isolation out there, when I lost Tracy and Chet. And I got really close to Jonathan, and then when he left, I was like, “oh crap.” James and Amanda had each other, Alexis and Natalie [had bonded]. Eliza, I love her to death, but she can be… not real welcoming. I felt complete and utter isolation out there. When Penner left, that kind of killed me. I said I’ve got to be the unluckiest person on the island. Everyone I bond with is gone.

RNO: You’re obviously a fan of the show, so why did you not know how bad it could get there?

Kathy: As I mentioned, when you’re sitting on your couch and watching the show and love the show and think how cool, they don’t show you… One of the turning points was Ami and I on Exile Island. They never showed how brutal that was for us. We had nowhere to go during that storm, we just sat against the rocks being pelted for eight hours. It really sucked that they didn’t show any of that. Mother nature out there just really… you don’t expect it. They show it raining for 10 seconds, you don’t realize it’s 12 hours. They got so pelted with rain, their cameras broke. That kind of was a turning point. Ami was kind of crying. Giving birth is a piece of cake compared to that.

RNO: What do you have to say to those viewers who are upset that you quit after taking a spot on the show that could have been given to somebody else?

Kathy: Oh great, thanks for that question. You know, watching Osten – I kind of believe he was the first to go. I apologize to anybody out there [watching the show]. I really thought I was so prepared. You think no big whoop until you actually get out there. And wow, it’s… how do I explain how brutal it was?

Mentally I just started going into a downward spiral. I couldn’t prepare for that. The people I would be with. I give so much respect – everything I ever said about any Survivor who couldn’t hack it, I take back. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my life. You’ve got nothing out there, a minute felt like an hour; an hour felt like a week. It was brutal. I was not prepared for how brutal it would be.

RNO: How have you been since leaving the island?

Kathy: I have been much better. I came home and I looked at my husband and I said, “What the hell have I done?” But I have to tell you, besides marrying my husband and giving birth to my daughter, that was the third happiest moment, getting on that boat. It was a sense of hope, it was hopeless. I tried so hard to get in with people, and I lost Tracy and Chet and Penner left the show, I couldn’t get in with anybody. It just – I was really happy when I got on that boat.

RNO: What did you think of your fellow tribemates on the switched-up tribe?

Kathy: I loved James, such a gentleman, funny, we had lots of conversations. But I had to tell him, you’re such a low talker – on China you had subtitles! (laughs) Jonathan and I laying in the shelter. I asked him some things about his mother and asked if he was picked for that. He said no, it was because he is Jewish. I said I didn’t know you were Jewish. Why are they mad at Jews? Is it because they killed Jesus? {I feel I should note that Kathy was laughing about this the whole time she told the stories and it was obviously another Kathy moment, much like earlier in the show with Chet – it wasn’t offensive like it might seem in print.} We had a lot of fun conversations.

Parvati, I love her. What they showed of her on Cook Islands – she would flirt with a coconut. She’s a sweet, sweet person. Of all the people I’m most surprised of, it’s her. She talks and acts that way to everybody – guys, women, trees, dirt, whatever. She’s a very sweet person. She of all people surprised me, meeting her and getting to know her.

RNO: What was the most eye-opening thing you saw on TV that you didn’t know about while you were there?

Kathy: I guess Joel going that he didn’t like me as a person – and I’m like, what the hell did I do to you? He kind of was a bully out there. Eye-opening was they really didn’t show how hard it was out there, but it’s three days of stuff in 45 minutes.

I heard some of the previous contestant interviews, and I have to say, we did not purposely isolate ourselves. {For example, Mikey B claimed that in his RealityNewsOnline interview, and probably elsewhere.} That is not true – nobody goes on Survivor and tries to isolate themselves. At all turns, they would tell us to go away. They’d hide the machete and use all the flint. We ended up doing all the grunt work and not being appreciated, because everybody wanted to be the hero. They said to figure out who among the three of you is going because you’re weak. We hadn’t even gone to a challenge yet! They never really gave us a chance.

RNO: Do you have anything else you’d like to tell us about your time on Survivor?

Kathy: Here comes the part my husband said I have to practice. Let’s see if I can say this with a straight face: (Adopting a somewhat robotic tone.) It was a wonderful experience, I’m so glad I actually got to live a dream that I had. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and it hammered home the fact that if you don’t have family you don’t have anything. (Loosening up a bit.) It just reinforced some facts some things in life for me, what are important and what’s not. (Back to robotic.) I’m so happy for the opportunity. (Laughing.) Is this sounding believable?

RNO: (Also laughing.) Not so much.

Kathy: Darn it, I have to work on that. But it was the most horrid wretched experience of my life. To actually do it and live the dream and meet my favorites, even though I know they are regular Joes who happened to be on TV before me. It was an experience that really hammered home priorities for me.

They kept asking me out there if I would ever do it again. Why would you come and do it twice? And they’re calling me crazy?! That’s crazy! (Laughing.)

RNO: Thanks again, Kathy!

David Bloomberg is the Editor of RealityNewsOnline and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

BY MISHA DAVENPORT mdavenport@suntimes.comTake it from former "Survivor: Micronesia" contestant Kathleen Sleckman: Things you see on TV are not the same as real life.

"Everything always looks so much easier when you're sitting at home with a roof over your head and a cold beer in your hand," she says.

The golf-course vendor from Glen Ellyn quit "Survivor: Micronesia" in Wednesday's episode rather than be voted off, and she doesn't regret her decision.

"The three happiest moments of my life have been the birth of my child, my marriage to my husband and getting on that damn boat" off the island.

There as part of a team of longtime "Survivor" fans, she says nothing she saw in the 16 prior seasons could have prepared her for the nightmare she encountered.

"Mother Nature really kicked my behind," she says. "There wasn't a single day during the 19 days I was there where I was dry. And on the day I decided to quit, I hadn't had much to eat other than raw oysters and I spent the night in a urine-soaked cave."

No wonder she likens her "Survivor" experience, on an island off Palau, to being a P.O.W.

"I take back everything bad I ever said about any 'Survivor' contestant who cried on the show," says Sleckman, 45. "This game is tough."

Things were bad from the minute she stepped on the boat bound for the island. Sleckman was one of three contestants in the Airai tribe who was over 40.

"The seven others clicked and immediately began to discuss which one of the three of us would be going home first," she says.

Sleckman was ostracized by her teammates, along with Chet Welch and Tracy Hughes-Wolf.

"I should have been more thickskinned, but we were shunned like lepers and I didn't understand why, she says. "I haven't had to deal with that since high school. That part really sucked."

Sleckman credits Hughes-Wolf for helping her last as long as she did: "That girl knew how to play the game and worked it. The three of us held hands in our shelter and formed a three-way voting bloc, and it worked for a while."

She remains friends with both Hughes-Wolf and Welch. But fellow Airai member Jason Siska of Fox River Grove was her least favorite person on the show.

"If I was playing shortstop and trying to throw out a runner at first base, Jason would have folded his arms, refused to catch the ball and then blamed me for not making the out," she says.

Siska would hide the machete needed to make a shelter or to crack the coconuts that were their primary source of food.

While watching the episodes in the comfort of her home, Sleekman says she took delight when Siska fell for a fake immunity idol.

"I tell you, it's like having Christmas come twice a year for me," she says. "Is he really that stupid to think that the 'Survivor' art department isn't going to be able to come up with a better idol than what he found? Karma comes back to you. I don't think I could be enjoying this more."